Beef and Blue, served with a Lynfred Cabernet-Merlot!
The amount of things I remember about recipes is directly related to how soon I post them after cooking them…this was a couple of weeks ago so I remember next to nothing except…
ITEMS!
! This was really tasty
! Don’t use this sauce if you hate blue cheese.
! I really need to start taking notes.
! Yes, that’s how I spell it.
Recipe from the Private Kitchen of Lynfred Chef Chris Smith
Makes 4 steaks, but lots of blue cheese sauce
INGREDIENTS
Beef Marinade Ingredients
2 cups Lynfred Cabernet-Merlot
1 Bay Leaf
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Coriander
8 Whole Black Peppercorns
Blue Cheese Sauce Ingredients
1 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Cup Creamed Cottage Cheese
2 Ounces Crumbled Blue Cheese & Pepper to taste
Main Ingredients
4 Sirloin Steaks
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Blue Cheese Sauce
Garnish (fresh watercress)
French Fries as a Side Accompaniment (or something else)
DIRECTIONS
1 - For Marinade, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2 - Add sirloin steaks and let marinate for 1.5 hours, turning several times. The marinade will add flavor to the meat and also tenderize the meat.
3 - Place the crumbled Blue Cheese in a bowl and add the creamed cottage cheese and pepper. Beat thoroughly with a wire whisk.
4 - Add the mayonnaise to the cheese mixture, stirring very lightly.
5 - Remove Sirloin Steaks from marinade.
6 - Pat the steaks dry with a dry cloth and sprinkle with pepper.
7 - Place steaks on a hot barbecue grill (or pan); cook to desired doneness.
8 - Season with salt and cover with Blue Cheese Sauce when ready to serve.
9 - Serve steaks with watercress and French fries (or other side).
Sausage & Veggie Kabobs, served with a Lynfred Vin de City Red!
I’m in the middle of my much-needed vacation right now, so not too much to write…in fact it’s 4PM and I just woke up! Now that’s a vacation.
These kabobs are really easy to prepare and make…a lot of chopping but that’s basically it. The one issue I’d say we had was we used a grill pan instead of a grill so that kabobs, by virtue of their shape, were directly against the pan in spots and off the heat in others, so it took a lot longer to cook than it should have. If you don’t grill them, try cooking the ingredients first then putting them on the skewers.
ITEMS!
! 4PM is early, tomorrow I’m going to try to extend it beyond that.
! Happy New Year everyone!!! Have fun and stay safe!
Recipe from the Private Kitchen of Lynfred Chris Smith
Makes 6-8 servings
INGREDIENTS
2 smoked Polish sausage links, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 large green bell peppers, cut into 1-inch squares
1 large sweet red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
2 medium onions, quartered and separated into sections
25 cremini mushrooms [ED.NOTE, these are just regular mushrooms], left whole and wiped clean with damp paper towel
1 bottle of your favorite garlic marinade
DIRECTIONS
1 - Place smoked Polish sausage pieces and all vegetable pieces in a non-metal container.
2 - Pour marinade sauce over contents, and mix thoroughly to coat. Let sit 30-50 minutes.
3 - Remove contents from marinade (reserving marinade for later).
4 - Thread sausage and vegetables alternately onto skewers; arrange as you like.
5 - Cook 15 to 20 minutes over medium-hot coals on a grill, turning to brown on all sides.
6 - Brush kebabs with reserved marinade.
7 - Once all sides are browned, arrange as you like onto a platter.
Sautéed Veal Cutlets with Bell Pepper & Mushroom Compote, served with a 2009 Vidal Blanc!
Believe it or not I do have a line with what I eat, and it stops with certain things like veal. I don’t really care if people eat it (I’m no eco- or animal crusader) but I just don’t care for it, from where it comes from to the taste. So, as with all our veal meals, we substituted steak. It came out really, really well. The only difficulty I had was cooking the steaks in a flat pan in the butter…I’m so used to making them only on the grill now that I actually have a hard time doing it any other way. Which is strange considering how just a couple of years ago grills terrified me.
We paired this with a really good, albeit slightly rich for my tastes, corn casserole (recipe coming up next along with the wine information) that created a really great meal overall.
Also, we got lazy and didn’t dredge the steaks before frying. Don’t tell anybody.
Recipe from the Private Kitchen of Lynfred Chef Chris Smith
Makes 2 servings
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup unsalted butter
12 ounces veal cutlets (or steaks of your choice)
All-purpose flour
1/4 cup diced red pepper
1/4 cup diced yellow pepper
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1/4 cup diced button mushrooms
1/4 teaspoon chopped shallots
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
1/4 cup chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
1 - In a heavy frying pan, melt the butter.
2 - Lightly dredge the veal in the flour and quickly sauté in the butter.
3 - Remove the veal from the pan, reserving the butter.
4 - Add the diced peppers, mushrooms, shallots and garlic.
5 - Add the wine, stock and seasonings and simmer until the liquid is reduced to half.
6 - Place the mixture on 2 serving plates.
7 - Serve the veal over the warm compote and garnish with crisp pepper slices.
Beef Stroganoff, served with a 2007 Zinfandel!
Okay, never had beef stroganoff before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. One thing is for sure though: I don’t know how to cook egg noodles and I don’t know what the consistency was supposed to be. So therefore I think the noodles came out a lot sloppier than they should have…they also might have been overcooked. These type of noodles might be part of stroganoff but next time we’re probably going to serve them with a regular wide, flat noodle. It’s not possible to screw that up, right? Anyways, if you haven’t cooked egg noodles before, read the packaging and directions carefully. Because I cooked them like I cook regular pasta, and that just didn’t work.
The beef portion of the stroganoff, however, was DELICIOUS. Up until the very end, it seems like just a normal beef stew, but adding the sour cream is what seems to give it its trademark look and taste. Very good overall, but like I said, regular noodles next time. That or rice.
Zinfandel info being posted shortly.
Recipe from Private Kitchen of Lynfred Chef Chris Smith
Makes 6 servings
INGREDIENTS
1 (16 oz) pkg egg noodles
2 T butter, softened
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (8 oz) pkg fresh white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 pound beef loin steak, cut into strips
1 (14 oz) can beef consommé or beef stock
1/4 cup red wine (optional)
3 T lemon juice
2 T all-purpose flour
2 T cold water (add more as/if needed)
1 (8 oz) container sour cream
DIRECTIONS
1 - Fill a large pot with water, lightly salted. Bring to a boil. Add noodles and cook 5-7 minutes.
2 - Melt butter in a large sauce pan over med-high heat. Stir in onions and garlic, cooking until slightly tender.
3 - Add in mushrooms, cooking for another 2 minutes.
4 - Place steak strips in the sauce pan and cook for about 1 minute.
5 - Mix in red wine, beef stock, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil.
6 - Blend flour with cold water in a small bowl.
7 - Reduce heat to low, and slowly pour in the flour/water mixture while stirring continuously.
8 - Gradually return sauce pan mixture to a boil while stirring rapidly, until sauce has thickened and is smooth.
9 - Cover sauce pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
10 - Remove from heat, let cool slightly, & then stir in sour cream. Serve with egg noodles. (NOTE: see above on egg noodles).
CORNED BEEF! HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY!
INGREDIENTS
Corned Beef and other goodness.
DIRECTIONS
1 - Boil it.
2 - Eat it.
(a bit tongue-in-cheek, I know…but for some reason I only eat corned beef once a year, and I don’t know why. I love it)
Slow-Cooked Chuck Roast, served with Lynfred Vin de City Red!
We just recently bought a crock pot (slow cooker) and am I glad we did! Anything made in a crock pot is good because you can basically just figure out a base, toss a bunch of complimentary ingredients in there, and set it to cook for half a day, stirring infrequently. When it’s done, you have something that is tender and flavorful, without much work.
For our first recipe, we tried a slow-cooked chuck roast and it was delicious. Whenever you can cut meat with a fork, that’s a good thing. Not sure what we’re going to try next but if anybody has any ideas, we’re all ears.
Makes 6-8 servings.
Recipe from the internet, adapted to our private kitchen.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups beef broth
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
5 pounds chuck roast
DIRECTIONS
1 - Place meat in slow cooker (aka crock pot).
2 - In a small bowl, mix together flour, salt, and pepper.
3 - Pour mixture over meat and stir to coat
4 - Stir in all other ingredients.
6 - cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
7 - If desired, serve with a fresh baguette or other bread.
Steak, Cheesy Broccoli & Rice, and Baked Potato Onion Cubes, served with a 2006 American Riesling!
Well, as normally happens around the holidays, we run out of time to do the actual Lynfred meal, and that was the case this year. Added to that is the fact that it was a turkey, which we’ve never even come close to attempting before.
However, the turkey IS upcoming…hopefully sometime in January. We’ll post the recipe then.
In the short run here’s what we did in December with the wine.
The steak is a standard cut using some steak seasoning and Lowry mix, cooked on our grill pan and not on the real grill because it’s like 2 degrees outside every day for the next 3 months. We used Steamables for the cheesy broccoli and rice…actually really good for bagged food. For the potatoes, the recipe is really easy - cut up four or five good sized potatoes in cubes. Pour in some vegetable oil and Lipton’s onion soup mix into a glass baking dish. Mix them around and lay them out and bake at 400 for about 35 minutes, stirring a few times and done. Really good!
Hope everybody has a happy and safe New Year!
(PS if you look hard at one of the pictures, there is a secret recipe for Easy Peasy Spinach Dip)
Veal Piccata, served with Lynfred’s Vin de City White!
Okay, a couple of things before I begin this one. First, ever since finding out how veal is actually made, my wife doesn’t eat veal. So we ended up frying up regular thin flank steaks.
Also, no one I talked to at the store even knew what capers were, and I couldn’t find them anywhere. However, the piccata is still the piccata without the capers.
What we did as a side is sauteed up some mushrooms in the left-over sauce and they came out fantastic. Add even more stuff like onions and some rosemary for a really great-tasting side dish.
Makes 2 servings
Recipe from the Private Kitchen of Lynfred Chef Chris Smith
INGREDIENTS
4 veal cutlets
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon minced garlic
½ cup chicken broth or stock
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoons capers, drained
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
flour for dusting
fresh lemon slices
chopped fresh parsley
DIRECTIONS
1 - Season veal cutlets with salt and pepper, then dust with flour.
2 - Coat a sauté pan with nonstick spray, add 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil and heat over medium-high.
3 - Sauté veal cutlets 2-3 minutes on one side. Flip the veal cutlets over and sauté the other side 1-2 minutes, with the pan covered.
4 - Transfer veal cutlets to a warm plate; pour off fat from the pan.
5 - Deglaze pan with wine and add minced garlic. Cook until garlic is slightly brown and liquid is nearly evaporated, about 2 minutes.
6 - Add broth or stock, lemon juice and capers. Return veal cutlets to pan and cook on each side for 1 minute.
7 - Transfer cutlets to a warm plate.
8 - Finish sauce with butter and sliced lemons. Once butter melts pour sauce over veal cutlets.
9 - Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and serve.
“Not Your Mom’s Meatloaf,” served with a 2008 Chardonnay!
Whew! Finally all caught up with the recipes! This month we had three things to try: meatloaf, some pineapple upside-down cake, and a sangria recipe. We’ve never cooked meatloaf before so had no idea how long it takes to cook. Allow yourself at least a few hours from beginning of preparation time to eating…however, it is totally worth the wait.
I’ll be making separate posts about the dessert and the sangria.
Makes 4-6 servings
Recipe from the Private Kitchen of Lynfred Chef Joe Hetman
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup garlic croutons
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper flakes
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and diced
3 garlic cloves
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 pounds each, ground sirloin and ground chuck
Large pinch salt
1 large egg
Parchment paper
Loaf pan
Sheet pan
Meat thermometer
DIRECTIONS
1 - Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2 - In a food processor, combine croutons, black pepper, chipotle flakes, chili powder, and dried thyme. Pulse until mixture is fine. Set aside in a separate bowl.
3 - In the food processor, combine onion, carrot, garlic, and red bell pepper. Pulse until mixture is finely chopped.
4 - Combine vegetable mixture with ground sirloin and ground chuck, and breadcrumb mixture from step 1.
5 - Season to eye with salt.
6 - Add the egg, and carefully combine.
7 - Pack the mixture into a standard-size loaf pan to help mold its shape. If need be, place in the refrigerator to allow to set.
8 - Turn out onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake until internal temperature of meatloaf reaches 155 degrees.
Wine information on the 2008 Chardonnay
(I have to note here that I am copying these directly from the Lynfred information…I don’t know this much about wine!)
Aroma: Brilliant aromas of pineapple, tropical fruit and cinnamon.
Palate: This medium bodied Chardonnay fills the mouth with lush tropical fruit flavors. A long and clean finish!
Foods: Lovely with avocados, bacon, butter sauces, crab, grilled flounder, ginger, halibut, lobster, salmon, trout, saffron, mango and Caesar salad.
Pappardelle Arrabiata di Giuseppe, served with a 2006 Merlot!
Well, OK, that’s what it was supposed to be. And if I’d taken the time to look it up Pappardelle is a type of wide fettuccine (I included a picture).
So instead we made steak with a side of cavatappi. However, because it seemed like a really good recipe for making pasta sauce from scratch, I included the original here.
INGREDIENTS
1 package pappardelle noodles
Two 15 oz cans whole peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1/4 cup red wine
Handful fresh chopped parsley, basil, and tarragon
1 large shallot, minced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
2-3 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
DIRECTIONS
1 - Cook noodles.
2 - Sweat garlic and shallot in olive oil.
3 - Add red wine and reduce heat.
4 - Add in tomatoes and juices.
5 - Add tomato puree and whisk together, cooking for a few minutes to thicken.
6 - Add in red pepper flakes and drop heat to medium low.
7 - Let sauce simmer for a few minutes.
8 - Add the herbs and toss with the noodles.
